Lamech is shown to walk in a couple of sins, God records these so that we can see the sinfulness and godlessness increasing in the dependents of Cain, and what it looked like.

For one, he is recorded as the first person to take a second wife, sinning against the love and equality of women. One of the great sins that always exists among sinful mankind is the loss of the equality and dignity of women. Wherever men grow in sin and darkness one of their greatest fruits will always be in how they treat their first neighbor, woman. The bitter selfishness and pride, the constant desire to rule over, these are evident signs of darkness and sin in a person.

The second thing we see here is the presumption of Lamech. Matthew Henry says this: “Lamech had enemies, whom he had provoked. He draws a comparison betwixt himself and his ancestor Cain; and flatters himself that he is much less criminal. He seems to abuse the patience of God in sparing Cain, into an encouragement to expect that he may sin unpunished.”

Presumption is one of the common characteristics in the attitude of sinful people. They spread themselves out, selfishly indulge in whatever they please, and then seek to deny the truth about their sins, and being held accountable for them.

Part of this presumption is a twisting of mercy, forgiveness, and grace. No longer are these things for repentance and to walk in what is good after having done wrong, but these are twisted simply into denying the judgments of God upon them.

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Rom 2:4)

It is the sad case today that much of what the church takes grace to mean is nothing more than presumption. It is a denial of God’s judgment and truth over them, of being held accountable, and saying that this is merciful!

This desire to put off our own personal responsibility and to not be held accountable for what we choose in this life is the very core of a sinful heart, not a godly one.

True grace is rooted in God’s kindness in leading us to repentance. To bear up under our responsibility, to: “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Isaiah 1:16-17) To come into a true goodness and godliness of life, whereas before we didn’t truly pay the cost to walk in these things.

Presumption is always an abuse of kindness. And rather than this being something “new”, we see the spirit of this sin at the very beginning of the world. And such a sinful frame of mind is no different today.

It is always rooted in how we seek to take hold of God’s mercy and kindness (and the kindness of people). This is very important to discern because we often think that a mere grasping onto the grace of God is all that matters, but it matters how we seek to take hold of God’s grace, and what we believe God’s grace to mean. The sinful heart in us can always aim to twist God’s mercy and grace, just as we see in Lamech. If we allow our sinful minds to twist God’s grace into a removal of God’s judgment and our personal responsibility in life, then we seek to take hold of God’s kindness with a sinful presumption, rather than in a true righteousness.

Many people today talk of rejoicing in God, when they have taken hold of God with this sinful heart. They boast as if God can no longer judge them, nor the light search out their sins. They fail to see that they rejoice in sin, and not in true godliness.

There is nothing more sinful and full of self love than presumption such as this. It denies fairness and justice to everyone else all in order to give favoritism to ourselves. And this is the heart of sinful man, a great selfish favoritism for ourselves, whereas God shows us the correction to sin is to love our neighbor as ourselves—getting at the imbalance within us.

Such favoritism is what many imagine the grace of God to mean. This sort of self love would rob all people around them of truth, fairness, and justice, all to suit themselves, and to go without accountability. Such an attitude murders love, justice, truth, and the good of their neighbor.

Lamech had murdered a man, and yet he would have no justice done for this man for his life being lost, no account given. This is the attitude in sinful mankind. How many times do people stand up in court and vehemently labor to be acquitted, with no regard to the crimes they have committed or the needs of their neighbor?

How sad that this same frame of spirit exists in the church! This same denial and defense of self. So many seek to hide behind the shield of lies and suppress the truth, when the true mark of godliness is a holding of personal accountability.

The whole world can’t face themselves for what they really are. The Christian is supposed to be someone who truly faces the truth. But when our attitude is nothing more than the same violent fist of self will, and the same denial of reality and truth of our neighbor; then the same presumption upon God’s mercy that we won’t be held accountable… Are we really of the spirit of Abel, or are we of the spirit of Cain?

The sinful heart always makes its refuge in lies and denying reality, a godly heart listens and faces reality for what it actually is. It doesn’t believe lies from other people about them (an important note to make here), but it also doesn’t walk in the same cowardice as the rest of the world, hiding behind the shield of self love and unreality to suit themselves.

So much of God’s grace has been twisted into a wicked favoritism for Christians, and this is a great heresy. As if the great “reward” of being a Christian is not being held to account for how we live, rather than being people who learn to bear up in accountability for what is truly godly and good.

Much of this comes from a misunderstanding of what faith is—faith is two parts, not one. Faith is often only taken as trusting in God, but the second part is trusting in God as we live righteously.

We often think of accounts like Daniel trusting in God in the face of the lions den, but miss how his faith was rooted in God in his innocence:

“My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” (Daniel 6:22)

When we see this then we understand God rightly, and not in a presumption. We understand, like in the case of the minas in Luke 19:11-27 that God’s grace to us is an investment whereby He expects the return and profit of righteousness in us. We see at the end of this parable that the person who does not make this return to God has even that original investment taken away from him.